2007 was a rough year for ideas.
The year of the threequel, 2007 hosted an unusual quantity of third
installments- Spiderman, Pirates, Ocean's, Bourne's, and Shrek just
to name a few; 2007 looks a lot like previous years. Looking for
a clever theme to create buzz, we had to find an idea that didn’t
take much energy for costumes. I am not suggesting people are stupid
but lazy. If someone has to figure out what you are trying to do,
they lose interest in a couple seconds. Leaving the thinking caps
at work is the usual mentality of uptown party goers. The Promoter
and I got desperate and looked at music, books, and trends. Then
in the middle of an episode of Heroes, I thought heroes and villains.
After presenting a good argument using Smallville, Heroes, 300,
and Transformers as Superhero bate, the promoter needed something
sexier for the women. So we thought of gender related words involving
heroes and villains . . . vixens. Although it doesn’t seem
that revolutionary, I don’t know of anyone that has had a
superhero uptown party that was worth mentioning in the last 5 years.
If Kevin and I don’t remember it, more than likely no one
else will either. The idea is a little Comic-Con, but it was the
title we needed. With years of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and
our Marvel Comic Book friends, the generic but catchy title has
thousands of movies, books, and ideas to easily create unique Halloween
costumes for our party guest.
I first wanted to create laboratories and kryptonite volcanoes,
and the promoter immediately pulled in the reigns. He had worked
out a deal to get open access to costumes and props from Morris
Costumes Warehouse in Charlotte. After a trip to the warehouse,
I had ideas but most of the costumes were too direct. Halloween
is about the guest. The guests are the actors and the entertainment.
I prefer to look at Halloween décor as theatrical set design.
I take the Lucas approach, by creating fantastic settings for my
characters to stumble through.
 To
start with the entrance, we wanted to suggest a call of distress.
We lined the patio with 4 moving lights on 5’ x 12”
Box Truss, lit with a blue LED lamp. Each fixture had one of 3 custom
gobos with the radiation symbol, the Biohazard symbol, and the nuclear
hazard symbol; scanning the 7 story parking lot with the spinning
yellow symbol. Two scanners were placed on the same style truss
from the second story balcony. Custom Batman gobos were placed in
the movers, signaling for help from the street to the tops of the
buildings surrounding the Forum. In-between the scanners, the angel
of death stood waiting for impending disaster to occur.
 Upon
entering the building, the right entrance takes you to the blue
bar. We created a sci-fi scene using hundreds of foam balls painted
with florescent paint in two groups. Using black light fixtures,
each “planet” exploded with color without lighting the
wall and beams around them. Overlooking the center of the blue bar
area, 8 aliens lit in green looked over the human guest pondering
what to do. The kicker for the sci-fi was the two Elation Streamers,
the best light for sci-fi parties since the invention of the black
light. These bad boys are fiber-optic spinners with over 300 color
changing strands whipping around like little alien gnats. The spinner
got a huge response from the early crowd who would stop and stare
without moving for minutes at a time. Does anyone have any shrooms?
Preve is an enclosed VIP area behind the dance floor. LED fixtures
line the perimeter up lighting the canopy above preve. Using native
lighting, we hung 12 bats directly above the fixtures. Each malevolent
face morphed with the color swirls from the lighting below. Sprinkled
with a hint of sarcasm, VIP guest overlooked everyone in the club
from the bat cave.
  For
the dance floor, I wanted the crowd to feel like the party was getting
raided. We used two Antari Z-1020 fog machines, the shoot across
the dance floor. These foggers use mirror pipe technology to project
fog long distances. The two streams of fog collided in the middle
of the dance floor creating an explosive fog effect. Up above two
Chauvet Stage Movers scanned the floor. The 1000W narrow par would
light the entire room without fog, completely inappropriate for
a nightclub. However, fill the room with smoke and a luminous cloud
of light smothered the crowd below. The Stage movers would pulse
in and out with the music with huge crowd blinding smoke screens
for the big hits. For the stage we used faux brick walls uplit with
cove style color changers, an appropriate setting for our costume
contest.
Finally for Pravda, the vodka bar, we had to make the spider reference.
We stretched a combination of fabric and cotton webs throughout
the room. Amidst the webs, three life size human spider victim props
hung from the ceiling, surrounded by oversized spiders ranging from
12 inches in diameter to 3 feet. Water effect lighting was set to
red, giving the room an eerie feeling. The spiders’ eyes had
little red LED lights peering through the fluctuating red lighting
on the overhanging webs.
The event was a huge success. The hero/vixen lair was packed with
every possible super person imaginable. The lighting outside the
event spanned the entire alley, bullying the other venues . . .
he he he. However even on day of show, I was scared the inside of
the club wasn’t going to be enough. The ideas were simple:
create a back ground story for our guest. I tend to be indirect;
I don’t like two dimensional props of storm troopers and Spiderman.
Sometimes I get to abstract. However, between the fog, the aliens,
and the spiders; the club was well zoned and well received by both
my client and the guest.
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